Thursday, January 19, 2006

Consequences and intentions

This is an article about Wal-Mart and health care in the US, about both of which I know next to nothing. I signal it because of the quote below. (I admit it's just the comfort derived from someone else saying something I have often shouted in the vast emptiness of my cranium.) The writer is speaking to his 'liberal friends'.

I wish you would see that motives matter less than consequences. I wish you could see that greed is at work when laws are passed that regulate markets, because regulations always produce winners and losers. I wish you could see that those winners and losers are often not who you think they are. I wish you could see that competitive behavior and free choice are forces that operate in the market as a check against greed. Finally, I wish you could see that greed is most difficult to restrain when it is exercised through the medium of government.
(via Instapundit)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope walmart will work to provide health insurance for the employees as more than 50% lack coverage.

NoolaBeulah said...

Can someone explain to me the difference between Wal-Mart insuring the employee and the Government doing so?